


dress me in your favourite disguise

by decayed



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M, but for now uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, smut eventually will tag when it happens
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:41:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25961515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decayed/pseuds/decayed
Summary: Tell me all your beautiful lies one last timeDress me in your favourite disguise, I've been blindYour boyfriend, Elias Bouchard, has been acting strange ever since his promotion. After being together for years you've grown accustomed to each other's various quirks, but he truly seems like a different man. Will your relationship be able to survive?
Relationships: Elias Bouchard/Reader
Comments: 5
Kudos: 38





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hello dear readers! this is quite an ambitious project, as this is intended to be a rather long fic. i can't promise regular updates but no matter what this work will be finished, as i already have an ending all planned out for it! anyway, please enjoy the first chapter & feel free to share your thoughts in the comments or reach out to me on my tumblr, fuckelias.

It’s been days since your boyfriend has reached out to you.

You were sure you weren’t being clingy, as it was quite odd for Elias to go this long without at least replying to your texts. Sometimes he became quite busy, as he either ended up engrossed in the investigations he conducted for work or was collapsed at home, too stoned to move. You knew that his work meant a lot to him, and sometimes it got to the point where he had to be alone to unwind after conducting a difficult investigation. This was why you didn’t push him too much when your messages went without responses.

Elias was never too much of a hard worker, but he always did possess something of an interest in the supernatural. He liked the work he did at the institute. He would tell you all about the wacky antics of his co-workers and all the questionably legal acts they committed in order to further their research. Elias always insisted it was ethical even if the things they did were sometimes illegal, as it was always in the pursuit of knowledge. As much as the institute acted as an archive, it was also intended to help people, as the assistants there provided follow up investigations of the mysterious statements that people would come in and present to the staff. It all seemed to be a very odd sort of institute, but the work he did had always made Elias very happy. As much as the institute creeped you out, you had something of a soft spot for it as it was through his work that you and Elias had met.

His absence and lack of response was getting to the point where it was worrying you greatly. You usually didn’t go this long without seeing each other, and not sending a daily text was almost unheard of. The unusual behaviour planted a deep seed of worry in your gut. It was only after you sent an angry text stating that you were headed to his house to check up on him that he responded. His apology was sincere, or at least you thought the text message seemed quite sincere. He explained how he had been caught up in an investigation and was unable to have access to his phone. Then, he did something that Elias had never done before: he offered to take you out to dinner, as he stated he had some excellent news to share.

As relieved as you were to hear from him, you were rather perplexed over the content of the text. For Elias, the phrase taking you out to dinner usually meant smoking up and heading to the nearest fast food joint when the munchies set in. Truth be told, you weren’t quite sure what he had in mind, but you accepted his offer of an apology dinner. He informed you that he would be picking you up at 6:00 sharp the following day, and you had to chuckle to yourself at this, as you don’t think Elias had ever been on time for anything in his life. Nevertheless, after days of no contact you missed your boyfriend dearly and were itching to see him again. Mysteriously enough, as soon as you agreed to the date he provided you with instructions, stating firmly that you were to dress sharp.

You assumed this was a joke of some sort. You didn’t think Elias even had the capacity to dress sharp himself. You’ve been to his house countless times and even raided his closet, and the only clothes he possessed that fit that definition was an underused and ill-fitting suit, perpetually consumed by wrinkles and doomed to languish in the back of his closet for all eternity. You’re pretty sure he had only worn it to a funeral the two of you attended a year or so back, and that it had not seen the light of day since. You respond by telling him that you’ll abide by his request if he promises to dress in kind.

His reply is nearly instantaneous. Again, this is quite the change of character, as usually Elias tends to be on the forgetful side, as far as boyfriends go. He’s never been the one to offer an instant reply. This was a point of contention in your relationship for quite some time before you had a nice long conversation about it and were able to conclude that he wasn’t trying to be malicious or lead you on- he was just kind of a dumbass. That was what attracted you to him in the first place, though. He was so funny and occasionally spaced out, your goofy pothead boyfriend. You’re confident that Elias has matured quite a bit over the course of your relationship, perhaps in part to the positive influence you’ve had on him. At any rate, he takes his job seriously. That was, in part, what caused the two of you to get together in the first place. Your eyes flutter shut as the memories rush through your head.

A disturbing encounter with something that must have been supernatural was what caused you to seek out the Magnus Institute. You couldn’t stop thinking about the experience. Your frantic googling led you to discovering that a place to share your story existed, and you were eager to put an end to the nightmares. You didn’t want to obsess over what had happened, but it was so difficult to forget, and even more irritating to have no one to confide in about it. They wouldn’t believe you or even take you seriously if you tried to convey just how horrifying the experience had been for you. You couldn’t bear to have any of your close friends think you were crazy, so you failed to confide in anyone. The weight was becoming too much to keep to yourself. This was what led you to conduct research online and to discover the existence of the Magnus Institute. As eager as you were to travel to the institute, which luckily was within walking distance of your flat, you were also filled with an incredible amount of nervousness.

You remember being impressed by the sheer scale of the building, by the hive of activity that it was. The memories prove rather hazy, however, as your anxiety was steadily increasing the closer you got to having to make your statement. It was Elias that was able to calm you. He proved to be the exact thing you needed in order to speak your truth: a kind, mild-mannered young man that sat with you and gave you gentle encouragement. 

Of course, after finishing your statement you became once again afraid that the encounter would come back to haunt you. Elias offered to travel to your flat and spend the night on your couch, justifying it to his superiors by insisting that he was conducting a follow-up investigation. By some miracle they agreed to let him go home with you, and you were in far too fragile a state to consider the implications of allowing a man you had just met to spend the night at your home. The memory that rings the most clear in your mind has to be his face when he walked in the door and spotted your prized bong on the kitchen table, as you had forgotten to put it away in your hurry to visit the institute. Your apologies died on your lips, as he was clearly entranced by the fine glass and designs ornamenting your elaborate bong. You two ended up smoking from it together and the rest is history.

Coming back to the present, you tap open Elias’ message in order to see what he has to say. Of course, my dear is the response, coupled with a lone winkie face! Now this had you on alert, as Elias tended towards expressing himself through the spamming of emojis, as much of your texts consisted of crying eyes laughing faces or shamelessly spammed smiley faces. You begin to grow afraid that something happened to him, but you’re confident enough to realize that he would have likely told you if something terrible did occur. You reply with a brief cya then and his response is a heart and a single kissing emoji. How odd! Maybe he was forced not to partake in the devil’s lettuce for a few days, as the Elias you know always expresses his affection for you with multiple hearts, heart-eyes and kissing face emojis. Maybe he was trapped at a work function without reception. It was definitely very in character of him to forget to tell you something important like that, as often he would assume you already knew or telling you would simply slip his mind.

Oh, well. You had best prepare for the dinner date tomorrow by confirming that you did indeed possess some sort of clothing that would fulfill the requirements Elias had laid out: dressing sharp. There had to be something fancy in the back of your closet. Maybe you could get away with just a button up and a tie. You rather disliked wearing full on suits. He was probably just planning to embarrass you, anyway. You could imagine the two of you showing up overdressed to McDonalds and him maintaining a straight face the entire time as you ordered too many McNuggets.

The nuggets were a favourite of Elias’, as he loved getting stoned and seeing how many he could consume in one sitting. Sometimes you even got a craving for them, which always proved fortunate as you were often left to eat whatever he left behind. You believe the record for him was somewhere around sixty-two before he ended up vomiting them all over your favourite rug. You were incredibly angry at the time, as he was incapacitated and unable to clean it up, but he made it up to you by taking the rug to get professionally dry cleaned himself and even surprised you with flowers. He could be so thoughtful, sometimes, especially when he knew he fucked up.

This was what you thought the whole taking you out to dinner thing was. He realized he got too caught up with work or weed or something and failed to maintain contact with you. You were still kind of sore about that, as although he was sometimes forgetful and dumb, he was never quite so rude as to leave you hanging for as long as he just had.

The fact that you two had been together for as long as you had and didn’t live together was a point of contention in your relationship, as you often wished the two of you could move in together However, Elias had gotten a very good deal on his flat and it was within walking distance of his workplace. He was pretty much always some degree of stoned, so it wasn’t really safe for him to have to drive to work. 

However, the place was too small for you to be able to move into it, as much as you enjoyed staying over. Elias was too attached to the place for his own good, and it was difficult to get a good deal on any other properties near his place of employment that would be able to accommodate the two of you. Also, your work was on the other end of the city from his, and that was where you happily lived. However, you still had quite a commute, whereas Elias walked. You didn’t like driving but Elias was never really sober enough to drive so you ended up serving as a chauffeur, more often than not.

This was also why the idea of Elias picking you up struck you as odd. You weren’t going to complain about it, though, as you despised traffic and had to work on controlling your road rage. He was truly pulling out all the stops to make it up to you, or so you thought, by taking you somewhere and even driving you both there. Elias was never the best with words, or with directly apologizing. Instead, you learned to read into his actions and draw your conclusions from there. You were sure he was sorry for essentially ghosting you, and he likely had some sort of hilarious anecdote to share with you from whatever investigation he was away on.

Thoughts of what silly clothing Elias would wear or the variety of amusing locations in which he would take you to dinner filled your head for the rest of the evening before you retired to bed. You were exhausted from a busy day at work, and were looking forward to seeing your boyfriend tomorrow. You couldn’t wait to see Elias, and fell asleep wondering what sort of exciting news he had to share with you.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elias makes his appearance.

You dream of him, but that's not exactly uncommon. You've dreamt of him quite often, silly dreams where you're walking down the street together like you've done hundreds of times, smoking up together, or fighting zombies. You’ve fondly told Elias of all the times that he has made an appearance in your dreams and he always laughs along with you.

Once you asked if he ever dreams of you. He got really quiet and the smile he had previously been wearing was nowhere to be seen. He told you very seriously that he didn't remember his dreams. He wouldn’t meet your eyes. You knew he was lying to you, but you also knew better than to press the issue. You’ve always wondered what he dreams of that made him look so afraid.

In this dream you're away from him, and you're scared and alone and quite frightened. You’re being followed. Stalked. Pursued. There’s eyes all around you, hundreds of eyes watching your every move. It feels like the worst case of stage fright in the world, like being told you have to give a speech but not having any words prepared. It’s terrifying and you run away from the eyes but you know they follow you, just as they always have since that one night you don’t like to think about.

You can't find him. You catch glimpses of him, though, but he’s always out of reach. You know it’s him, though. You’d be a shitty boyfriend if you couldn’t recognize Elias from across the room. Why is he running from you, though? You race around and around, in a strange land that you don't recognize. There's the presence of something unfamiliar that is near you, too close to you, threatening to overwhelm you. They are looking and they know things that you don’t. Something has its eye on you, and you keep running and shouting for Elias. Where did he go? 

You finally corner him, and you see he’s crying, hunched over as his entire body shakes with the strength of his sobs. You’ve only seen him cry like this before on a few occasions that you don’t like to think about. You go to comfort him, but as you go closer he raises his face and you see those aren’t tears streaking down his face, but blood. A trail of blood runs freely down the ruins of his eye sockets, a constant, unrealistic faucet of crimson. It gushes from his empty sockets, and you want to scream but you can’t because you’re frozen in place, fixated entirely on the sight before you. There’s blood everywhere and he’s stopped sobbing, stopped crying, stopped doing anything. He grabs you suddenly, forces you to stare into the void that exists in place of his eyes. His lips begin to move, to say something, and you desperately listen but what comes out of his mouth is instead a sharp and insistent beep beep beep: the harsh noise of your alarm clock as it wakes you up.

You wake up, and you can't really remember the dream too well. The macabre details fade but the sense of unease remains. You remember blood and eyeballs and the feeling of pursuit. Being watched and not being able to do anything about it. You’re unsettled, but it was just a bad dream. Right?

You assume it's only your overactive imagination, as you have not seen Elias in a while so it makes sense that you'd be feeling disconnected from him, having to chase after him. As well, all those weird shows you keep binging on Netflix likely do not help you have normal dreams. There always seems to be a spooky, sinister element to them. All that blood reminds you of a particularly gruesome scene that you watched a few days ago. You resolve to abstain from watching anything horror adjacent for the time being.

You have the day off from work so you're left to your own devices, yet an anxious cloud seems to hover over you. You really want to text him, to beg him to send you a silly selfie or to inquire how much weed he has, if you two can just relax at his place after the dinner and smoke and catch up. The prospect of dinner has you excited, although you've yet to decide what to wear. It's too early to be awake, really, as you forgot to turn off your typical work wake up alarm, but you don't fancy the idea of going back to sleep. You really don't want to have any more disturbing dreams.

Nevertheless, you do your best to relax and take it easy as 6 o'clock draws nearer. Although you doubt Elias will arrive on time, he may not be as tardy as usual in order to attempt to appease you. Placate your anger with niceties, as is his custom. You imagine him nervously knocking on your door, laden down with Chinese take-out and smiling his signature goofy grin. He'd look sheepish and shy, would ask you if he can come in all soft and tentatively. You two would rotate taking hits from your bong while devouring the food, all the while some sort of Netflix documentary played in the background. You'd probably end up fucking on the couch, and it would be slow and gentle and soft like he always is for you. He'd kiss you and everything would be just fine, all back to normal like nothing weird ever happened.

More pressing concerns demand your attention, however pleasant your fantasies may prove. You need to pick out an outfit, and as much as you'd rather wear a simple tie with a tucked in dress shirt, you feel like you can humour Elias' request a bit more than that. In order to move past this little bump and get things back on track, you'll dress sharp. You take a long, refreshing shower in order to prepare, and even iron out all of your best clothes that have not seen the light of day since your last job interview. You cut quite a figure in your suit and tie. You're actually quite disappointed that Elias will likely take you to Chuck E. Cheese instead of anywhere fancy, but you know he's always amused when he's able to rope you into his foolish shenanigans. 

You're fully engrossed in a game on your phone when the doorbell rings, and you wonder just who it could be. The time is exactly 6:00 PM: is Elias this early? Usually he sends a text when he's here if your door is locked, or he just lets himself in and settles on your sofa until you notice his presence. Then again, he might be really playing up the fancy date angle, so you decide to indulge him.

You swing open the door, a practiced smirk on your face as you refuse to believe that Elias would ever be caught dead in a suit unless the event absolutely required it. When you finally catch sight of him, it feels like time stands still.  
He looks different. It isn't really registering as different good or different bad; he just looks wildly different from his usual appearance. He isn't standing with a relaxed, slumped posture. Instead his back is completely straight and he looks serious as fuck. Usually when he's play-acting there will be some sort of smile tugging on his lips, a cute little mischievous glint in his eye, something to indicate that he's playing a joke on you. However, nothing like that exists that you can immediately identify. At least, it's hard to focus on his face when you realize that he's wearing a suit.

It's a new one, too. He went out and bought a brand new suit. It looks incredibly fancy, far outclassing the dress attire you find yourself in and in another league entirely from the shitty suit he had before that he rarely used. Elias detests suits, doesn't he? He's told you before how glad he is that his workplace essentially lets him wear whatever, has said that he despises formal occasions where he's forced into wearing a suit. He's said before it hugs him in all the wrong places, feels tight and constricting. Usually he dresses so casually, to the point where you've implored him to upgrade his wardrobe. Maybe he took you too seriously, and went to a whole new level?

He changed his hair. The usual fluffy, wild mess that you adored is gone. You can’t tell if he got it cut or just gelled it down so it’s all neat and tidy. It makes him look older, more mature, which is very much a look that he’s always been trying to avoid. Is it a joke he’s playing on you, dressing up so he looks like a much older man? Maybe it’s the hair that makes him appear rather gaunt. You never thought he had sharp facial features before, but he looks almost sickly. His skin is paler than usual, too, lacking the healthy shine that it usually possesses, the effortless tan that Elias always gains in warm weather. You wonder if he’s been ill at all.

It’s Elias’ eyes that catch your attention last, his gaze that you’ve been avoiding. You don’t know what you’re going to find there, but you look all the same and are struck by an alarming thought: Why do his eyes look different? Can people’s eyes change colour? Maybe as they age, but how much could he have aged within the past few days you haven’t seen him? 

It’s probably just a silly thought, though. You doubt his eyes are actually a different colour. It must be the new suit and new hairstyle, bringing out different colours that you haven’t seen before. It’s just that you really feel that you definitely remember the exact shade.

Months ago you and Elias attended a couples painting class together. The two of you goofed around and had a small war where the two of you splattered each other with paint. You almost got kicked out of the class for your crimes, but promised to behave so you were able to continue. Elias treaded that line very carefully, doing his best to make you laugh.

When the two of you were once again granted access to the paints, you were instructed to observe the various colours that made up the complexion of your partner in order to paint a better likeness. Elias had fun with it, as he inched absurdly close to you and stared into your eyes creepily. You had to hold back your laughter, but then punished him by doing the same. He tolerated it, letting you stare deeply into his eyes as you selected the shades that would best match it. Your shoddy painting is still hanging in your living room, and you’ve spent a lot of time studying your handiwork. You’ve often threatened to take it down, but Elias enjoys it so you haven’t had the heart.

The point remains, though, that you’ve looked at his eye colour often enough to know that his current eyes simply do not match. It’s subtle but the difference is there, and it gives you a sick feeling in your stomach to consider the fact too closely, so you do your best to not think about it. It can’t possibly mean anything. It’s probably the outfit, or maybe the evening light, or simply having gone so long without seeing him- all reasonable excuses for the difference that your mind slyly supplies you with.

You give Elias one last once over before a brilliant smile lights up your face. Even though he looks so different, he’s still your boyfriend that you haven’t seen in forever! 

“You really took ‘dressing sharp’ to the extreme, huh?” you tell him, leaning casually against the door frame and crossing your arms over your chest. You do your best to act gracefully, but the truth is your heart is pounding hard against your chest. You’re nervous as fuck, but you have to play this off.

A smile slowly spreads across Elias’ face. It isn’t quite what you’re used to, as generally his smiles tend to be large, contagious things, but this one is subtle and barely there. He looks so incredibly classy, a word you had previously never associated him with. He also looks sexy, as the whole suit and tie and slicked back hair is doing wonders for him, although it isn’t what you’re used to. It seems almost impossible that this was the man that took a large gulp of your bong water after losing at Mario Kart the previous weekend.

“Of course, darling,” he purrs at you, and the endearment feels odd to hear. Not that Elias didn’t usually use them, of course, but just he never seemed to treat them seriously, as he would end up making up increasingly odd names for you, getting to the point where the two of you would end up doubled over with laughter at his antics. The last thing you remember him referring to you as would have to have been “my petite cherry cheese biscuit” which not only sounded super gross, but also did not make any sense at all. 

He extends his hand to you, expression not wavering at all, the same smile plastered on his face like he was made of stone. Like he’s imitating the expression, not used to it at all, gauging your reaction. 

“Shall we?” he queries, a lone eyebrow raising to compliment his question, and this about breaks you. Conflicting feelings of confusion and arousal mix through you. Yes, you think raising only one eyebrow is super sexy and is perfect when coupled with an invitation. However, Elias had never been able to raise only one eyebrow. You had tried to teach him to do it on multiple occasions, but he was never able to and always ended up giving up on it. Maybe he had taught himself it to surprise you? You have to stop thinking anyway, before you go down the rabbit hole any further.

“Of course!” you tell him easily, voice a tad too loud as you take his hand. Your palms are sweaty as fuck, but usually Elias runs hot too so you’ve grown used to the awkward disgusting suction as you two hold hands. However, right now his skin feels far too cold. It’s chilling, but you once again rationalize this strange development, as it’s quite cold outside, really, and you left him standing there for far too long as you delayed answering the door due to how unexpected it was for him to arrive on time. He holds your hand too tightly. It feels like he's trying to leech all the warmth from your skin, and you have to suppress a shiver.

He leads you to the car, walking slowly. To your surprise, he goes around to the passenger side, and actually opens your door for you. You don’t know what to make of it, especially because the same half smile seems to remain on his lips whenever you look at him. It's an expression you're unused to, and it gives nothing away. You’ve been trying not to look him in his eyes until he drops this pretentious act, because you’re honestly beginning to find it a tad disturbing and are unsure if you should play along. For now, at least, you decide to, and you begin attempting to go along with what he’s doing in hopes that he’ll return back to himself if you pretend the two of you are actually going on a fancy date.

“Why thank you, sir,” you tell him in your best impression of a Victorian gentleman, nodding to him as you climb into the car. He doesn’t even let out so much of a snicker at your response, but you can feel his eyes on you. Usually you like being watched by him. Usually his gaze feels warm. Now, however, as he slams the door shut behind you, you realize you feel how you felt in your dream: squirming under an unpleasant set of eyes and wondering what in the world happened to your boyfriend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk if i should do notes at the beginning or end but here seems good. hope you enjoyed the update!! as always feel free to drop me a comment or send me an ask on tumblr @ fuckelias.

**Author's Note:**

> once again! i hope you liked the first chapter! i appreciate any and all comments, and if you want to chat with me directly my askbox is always open on my tumblr, fuckelias.


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